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Zack Polanski was the only one worth listening to on QT

Zack Polanski tore into the establishment’s dangerous distraction tactics on immigration on BBC’s Question Time (BBCQT) last night. But the Green Party leader also thoroughly embarrassed the BBC over its own role in pushing the divisive narrative of the super-rich.

Speaking on an ‘Immigration Special’, Polanski asked the BBC:

When are we going to have a ‘cost of living’ special, or a climate special, or a ‘tax the rich’ special?

That’s an excellent question, considering the cost of living and declining public services are consistently the top issues on ordinary people’s minds.

Most British people also care deeply about the environment and firmly believe a wealth tax is necessary — and surprisingly, so do a big chunk of Britain’s wealthiest people! These issues aren’t what the dominant neoliberal establishment wants to prioritise.

Polanski’s question clearly rattled BBCQT presenter Fiona Bruce, who awkwardly responded by suggesting that specials on those topics weren’t necessary:

I think it’s probably true we talk about cost of living every week. So I’m not sure we need a special programme for it because we do it every week.

Who really wants us to obsess over immigration and underplay everything else?

Polanski also shared a candid conversation with a woman he met as soon as he got into Dover for BBCQT, who told him:

We are not obsessed with immigration in Dover. Actually, the things we care about are our NHS, our libraries, and our schools.

And that’s a key point. Because as the Green Party leader insisted:

We are being distracted by talking about immigration!

Speaking about housing in particular, and the horrific government suggestion of putting asylum seekers in military barracks, he stressed:

We have a million households on the waiting list – we need to build council housing!… We need to build these houses anyway. So let’s stop pitting communities that were born here against people who are fleeing war and persecution, or even migrant workers. And let’s actually say when we build these houses – for local communities rather than property developers who can land-bank and sit on assets – … this is how we integrate communities…

Let’s make sure we have appropriate accommodation where people can be working, paying into the tax system, and we can be proud of a country that is humane and compassionate rather than running to be toxic and divisive.

He added:

We shouldn’t have a race to the bottom on migration. We should have a race to the top on public services!

And he clarified that:

the issues with the National Health Service, the issues with the lack of council homes, the issues with society feeling broken, are not the issues of migrants or someone who is clinging to a small boat. They’re the issues of 14 years of Conservative austerity continued by a Labour government who say ‘this is an island of strangers’. But actually, you’re a Government of Cowards, because you won’t tell people the truth about migration. And the truth about migration – it is a positive thing for this country, we need migration, we need fair and managed migration.

He’s right, because people from other countries contribute strongly to our economy. The UK has an ageing population, low birth rates, skills shortages, and a massive underinvestment problem — and Britain’s foreign interference has played a big part in pushing people out of their homes in the first place.

The biggest challenge we face is stopping neoliberal destruction!

Polanski correctly placed the focus on the neoliberal political establishment that has disastrously dominated in Britain for five decades now.

He highlighted how Margaret Thatcher kicked things off (by, for example, neutering local government), and how the Tories and their allies decimated community spaces after 2010 by massively cutting public spending. 14 years of Tory rule led to the despicable closure of over 1,200 youth centres and the loss of over 4,500 youth workers. This has contributed to an increase in loneliness and crime, less real-world interaction, and poorer performance at school.

Neoliberalism is what has been screwing the country over, not immigration. And the sooner we focus on that — as Polanski brilliantly did on BBC Question Time — the sooner we can start repairing the damage.

Featured image via the Canary/imblacknitravel

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.